38 


BANCROFT    LIBRARY 


Pepper  Collection 


.DUPLICATE 


RE-COLUM3IAN  COPPER  MINING  IN.  NORTH  AMERICA 
R.  L.  Packard. 


-roft  Library 


THE 


VOL.  XV.  MARCH,  1893.  No.  2. 


PRE-COLUMBIAN  COPPER  MINING  IN  NORTH 
*     AMERICA. 

^d*** 
BY  R/X,.^  PACKARD,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

f 

The  broad  classification  of  the  successive  stages  of  culture 
of  the  prehistoric  peoples  of  Europe  into  the  stone,  bronze  and 
iron  "ages"  was  based  upon  prehistoric  finds,  and  is  an  induction 
derived  from  observation  similar  to  that  relating  to  the  succession 
of  the  different  orders  of  animals  and  plants  in  geological  history. 
It  is  also  confirmed,  as  far  as  bronze  and  iron  are  concerned,  by 
ancient  tradition,  for  in  early  historical  times  it  was  known  among 
the  Greeks  that  bronze  had  preceded  iron  at  an  earlier  period,  and 
this  knowledge,  passing  to  the  Romans  in  a  later  age,  was  ex 
pressed  in  the  line  of  Lucretius,  which  has  been  frequently  quoted 
in  this  connection,  "Sed prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus  usus" 

But  there  is  evidence  to  show  that  the  use  of  copper  was  in 
dependent  of,  if  it  did  not  precede,  that  of  bronze,  particularly 
in  places  where  the  metal  was  indigenous.  This  evidence  con 
sists  in  the  discovery  of  copper  implements  and  weapons,  instead 
of  or  sometimes  accompanying  bronze,  mingled  with  numerous 
stone  articles  of  the  same  character  in  various  places  in  Europe 
and  the  East.  The  prehistoric  people  had  learned  the  art  of 
extracting  copper  from  its  ore,  and  in  some  cases  practiced  it 
near  the  places  where  the  metal  was  used  for  implements  and 
weapons.  Prehistoric  copper  mines  have  been  reported  from 
the  Urals  and  elsewhere,  and  a  circumstantial  account  ot  such  a 
mine,  which  was  discovered  in  1827  near  Bischofshofen  in  Salz 
burg,  in  Germany,  has  been  published  by  M.  Much,  an  archaeol 
ogist  who  examined  it  in  1879.*  The  traces  of  the  old  workings, 
nearly  obliterated  after  so  long  a  time,  had  led  to  the  establishment 
of  a  flourishing  modern  copper  mine  on  the  same  vein,  just  as 

*Die  Kupferzeit  in  Europa  und  ihr  Verhaltniss  zur  Cultur  der  Indogermanen.    Wien, 

1886. 


68  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN. 

the  trenches  on  the  outcrops  of  the  copper  bearing  rocks  in  the 
Lake  Superior  district  served  as  guides  to  modern  miners  in 
sinking  shafts  there.  The  Salzburg  mine,  however,  was  in  copper 
ore  and  not  native  copper,  and  was  a  mine  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  term,  with  extensive  underground  workings.  The  remains 
of  small  smelting  furnaces,  with  slag  heaps  and  other  rubbish, 
were  found  in  the  neighborhood,  in  the  midst  of  which  were  a 
few  pieces  of  the  copper  produced  from  the  ore  on  the  spot  by 
the  prehistoric  smelters.*  No  iron  tools  or  signs  of  their  use 
were  found  in  this  mine,  which  was  assigned  by  the  archaeologist 
who  examined  it  to  the  time  of  the  neighboring  lake-dwellers, 
who  used  its  copper  for  weapons  and  tools.  Another  mine  in 
the  Tyrol,  referred  to  by  the  same  author,  was  also  apparently 
worked  to  supply  a  colony  of  lake-dwellers  situated  near  by. 

It  might  be  expected  on  both  mineralogical  and  metallurgical 
grounds  that  copper  would  be  used  before  bronze,  and  even  be 
fore  smelting  was  discovered,  because  copper,  like  gold  and 
silver,  is  found  in  the  native  state  in  many  places,  while  con 
siderable  metallurgical  skill  is  necessary  for  the  production  of 
bronze.  Moreover,  bronze  is  an  alloy  of  copper  and  tin,  and, 
except  in  the  comparatively  rare  cases  where  copper  and  tin  ores 
occur  together,  tin  would  have  to  be  transported  to  the  copper 
smelters  to  produce  the  alloy.  In  North  America,t  while  copper 
was  known  to  the  natives,  bronze  had  not  appeared  at  the  epoch 
of  discovery  by  Europeans,  and  neither  smelting  nor  even  melt 
ing  was  necessary  for  the  production  of  the  copper  articles  found 
in  use  by  the  discoverers. 

The  first  comers  to  the  northern  part  of  this  continent  were 
struck  with  the  absence  of  metals  in  the  native  weapons  and  im 
plements,  and  found  their  place  supplied  by  stone  and  bone.  The 
inhabitants  were  in  the  neolithic  stage  of  culture.  They  were, 
indeed,  in  possession  of  copper,  but,  as  far  as  the  discoverers  ob 
served,  it  was  almost  exclusively  used  for  ornamental  purposes, 
and  formed,  apparently,  no  part  of  the  native  equipment  in  the 
arts  ot  life.  Exclusive  of  the  Spaniards,  the  earliest  voyagers 
who  left  records  or  reports  of  their  explorations,  sailed  along  the 
coast,  or  visited  different  parts  of  it,  from  Labrador  to  Florida, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  whole  sea-board  were  found  sparingly 
in  possession  of  the  "red  metal."  Thus,  in  the  account  of  Cabot's 
voyage  in  1497,  given  in  Hakluyt,  there  is  this  brief  statement: 
"  Hee  (Cabot)  declareth  further  that  in  many  places  of  these 
Regions  he  saw  great  plentie  of  copper  among  the  inhabitants." 
The  account  is  a  translation  from  Peter  Martyr,  and  the  words 
.it  plentie  of"  are  not  warranted  by  the  original. J  Cabot's 


*A  piece  of  this  copper  gave  on  analysis:  Cppper,  98.46  per  cent:  sulphur,  0.09  per  cent, 
slag,  0.44  per  cent;  while  a  copper  tool  found  in  the  workings  gave  copper  97.78  per  cent, 
niclcel  0.88  per  cent,  iron  a  trace,  lead  0.05  per  cent,  sulphur  0.24  per  cent,  slag  0.07  per  cent 
V.rth  America  is  meant  only  the  nun-Spanish  portion  of  the  country. 

JOrichalcum  in  plerisque  locis  se  vidisse  apud  incolas  pr;u 


PRE-COLUMBIAN  COPPER  MINING  IN  AMERICA.  69 

observations  were  made  on  the  northern  coast  of  the  continent, 
and  he  went  as  far  as  60°  north  latitude.  A  similar  brief  state 
ment  is  given  in  the  account  of  the  voyage  of  Cortereal  in  1500, 
who  is  said  to  have  gone  as  far  north  as  56°.  The  account  (in 
Ramusio)  describes  the  painted  inhabitants,  their  clothing  of 
skins  and  other  particulars,  and  states  that  they  had  bracelets  of 
silver  and  copper.  The  mention  of  silver  is  unfortunate.  Ver- 
razano's  report  goes  more  into  particulars.  He  coasted  from 
34°  to  beyond  41°  north  latitude,  in  the  year  1524,  and  made 
several  landings.  He  says  of  the  natives  at  a  point  on  the  coast 
apparently  in  the  neighborhood  of  New  York  that  they  had  "many 
plates  of  wrought  copper,  which  they  esteeme  more  than  golde." 
On  sailing  along  the  coast  to  the  eastward  he  saw  certain  hills 
and  concluded  that  they  had  some  "minerall  matter  in  them, 
because,"  he  says,  "we  saw  many  of  them  (the  natives)  have 
beadstones  of  copper  hanging  at  their  eares."  On  the  southern 
and  eastern  coast,  therefore,  according  to  these  accounts,  the 
copper  was  used  for  ornaments.  Neither  of  the  observers  quoted 
speaks  of  copper  weapons  in  that  part  of  the  country,  which  they 
would  have  been  likely  to  notice,  as  they  naturally  paid  special 
attention  to  the  arms  they  might  have  to  encounter.  Nor  did 
later  explorers  who  described  the  equipment  of  the  natives  in 
detail  have  occasion  to  give  greater  prominence  to  copper. 

In  Carrier's  second  voyage  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  in  1535,  he 
kidnapped  the  principal  chief  of  a  local  tribe  to  take  with  him  to 
France,  following  the  common  practice  of  the  time,  and  this  chief 
was  visited  on  shipboard  by  condoling  members  of  his  tribe,  who 
were  assured  that  he  would  return  the  next  year,  "which,  when 
they  heard,"  says  the  account  in  Hakluyt,  "they  greatly  thanked 
our  Captain  and  gave  their  lord  three  bundles  of  beaver  and  sea 
wolves  skinnes,  with  a  great  knife  of  red  copper  that  commeth 
from  Sagnenay."  Here  is  an  instance  of  a  copper  weapon  or 
implement.  The  quantity  of  copper  which  the  North  American 
Indians  possessed  at  the  epoch  of  discovery,  although  the  metal 
was  diffused  over  a  very  wide  territory,  was  very  small  compared 
with  stone.  A  glance  at  collections  of  aboriginal  articles,  like 
that  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  in  Washington  or  the  Pea- 
body  Museum  in  Cambridge,  will  at  once  show  how  relatively 
insignificant  it  was.  The  Smithsonian  has  between  six  and  seven 
hundred  copper  articles  from  mounds,  graves  and  other  sources 
within  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  while  there  are  thou 
sands  of  stone  arrow  and  spear  heads  and  implements  in  its 
collection.  The  Peabody  and  other  copper  collections  are  very 
much  smaller.  A  closer  examination  of  the  Smithsonian  exhibit 
will  show  that  the  copper  articles  from  the  south  and  east  are 
mainly  of  an  ornamental  character  and  few  in  number  compared 
with  those  found  towards  the  northwest.  As  Wisconsin  is  ap 
proached  the  copper  articles  not  only  increase  in  number,  but 


70  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN. 

the  proportion  of  arrow  and  spear  heads  and  implements  far  ex 
ceeds  that  of  the  ornaments.  Among  the  Wisconsin  specimens 
are  pieces  of  "float"  copper,  varying  in  size  from  those  weighing 
several  pounds  down  to  nuggets,  which  indicate  the  convenient 
material  of  which  some  of  the  manufactured  articles  were  prob 
ably  made.  If  one  were  to  prepare  a  map  showing  by  shading 
or  colors,  as  is  now  the  practice,  the  relative  number  of  aborig 
inal  copper  finds  in  the  United  States,  the  deepest  shade  or  darkest 
color  would  at  present  be  in  Wisconsin.  This  condition  is  no 
doubt  largely  due  to  the  indefatigable  zeal  of  Mr.  F.  S.  Perkins 
of  Wisconsin,  who  has  devoted  himself  for  many  years  to  col 
lecting  copper  articles  of  Indian  origin  from  all  parts  of  the 
State,  over  two  hundred  of  which  are  in  the  Smithsonian  cases. 
But  the  phenomenon  can  be  explained  in  another  way  when  one 
reflects  that  Keweenaw  Point  is  directly  north  of  the  State  and 
was  the  seat  of  the  ancient  copper  mines,  which  have  attracted 
the  attention  of  archaeologists,  and  was  the  center  of  distribution 
of  the  native  copper  which  was  the  object  of  the  desultory 
mining  carried  on  there.  Wisconsin  is  also  in  a  very  favorable 
situation  for  receiving  the  drift  which  brought  "float"  copper 
from  the  copper-bearing  rocks  of  Keweenaw,  which  "float"  was 
apparently  often  manufactured  into  implements.  The  State 
covers  a  district  which  was  near  the  mines  and  is  in  a  direct 
course  for  people  leaving  them  going  south.  It  may  be  found 
that  that  district  was  the  seat  of  the  ancient  miners  themselves. 
The  yield  of  mounds,  graves  and  fields,  as  shown  in  the  col 
lections,  confirms  in  a  general  way  the  observations  of  the  first 
discoverers.  In  the  eastern  and  southern  parts  of  the  country 
the  majority  of  the  copper  articles  which  have  been  found  are 
breastplates,  bracelets,  beads,  bobbin-like  objects  and  other  orna 
ments,  while  in  the  north  and  west,  and  especially  in  Wisconsin, 
implements  and  weapons  prevail.  The  Wisconsin  specimens  are 
like  those  figured  by  Whittlesey  (Smithsonian  Contributions, 
XIII),  which  were  found  in  the  mining  district  itself,  and  those 
found  at  Brockville,  Canada,  and  shown  in  Wilson's  Prehistoric 
Man.  Others,  apparently  of  the  same  character,  are  mentioned 
by  Wilson  as  being  found  near  Marquette,  Michigan,  east  of  the 
copper  district. 

The  present  evidence,  therefore,  shows  that  copper  had  not 
passed  its  ornamental  or  precious  stage  on  the  seaboard  and  in 
the  south  at  the  time  this  continent  was  brought  to  the  attention 
of  Europe.  It  was  not  a  part  of  the  general  native  equipment, 
either  for  war,  or  hunting,  or  other  useful  purposes,  and  its  posi 
tion  in  the  native  economy  was  not  like  the  noticeable  part  it 
played  in  the  armament  of  the  Mexicans  and  Central  Americans 
of  the  same  period. 

At  the  advent  of  Europeans  copper  was  eagerly  sought  for  in 
trade  with  the  whites.  An  official  present  of  copper  articles  is 


PRE-COLUMBIAN  COPPER  MINING  IN  AMERICA.  71 

particularly  mentioned  in  the  account  of  Carder's  voyage  before 
referred  to,  and  Ralph  Lane  writes  from  Roanoke,  in  1585,  to 
his  company  in  England  that  they  could  not  do  better  than  send 
over  copper  articles  of  all  kinds  to  trade  with;  "copper  carryeth 
the  price  of  all,  so  it  be  made  red,"  he  explains.  The  copper 
obtained  from  the  whites  was  very  soon,  with  other  imported 
things,  disseminated  by  barter  among  the  different  tribes.  In 
Frobisher's  third  voyage  to  the  Labrador  coast  flat.  58°),  in  1578, 
he  noticed  the  evidence  of  this  aboriginal  trade,  and  says  "the 
natives  have  traffic  with  other  people,  and  have  barres  of  iron, 
arrowe  and  speare  heads  and  certain  buttons  of  copper  which 
they  use  to  weare  upon  their  foreheads  for  ornament,  as  our 
ladies  in  the  Court  of  England  doe  use  great  pearle."  This 
trade  with  the  natives  must  have  been  considerable.  The  fishing 
fleets  which  swarmed  in  the  northern  waters  carried  on  trade, 
and  copper  and  iron  articles  formed  a  part  of  their  outward  car 
goes.  According  to  Anthony  Parkhurst,  who  had  been  in  the 
business  and  on  the  fishing  grounds,  trade  to  Newfoundland 
from  England  was  brisk  in  1548,  and  an  estimate  which  he  made 
for  Hakluyt  shows  that  in  1578  there  were  one  hundred  Spanish 
vessels  engaged  in  cod  fishing,  twenty  to  thirty  whalers  from 
Biscay,  fifty  Portuguese  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  French  and  Bre 
ton  vessels.  The  English  contingent  was  then  much  smaller 
than  in  former  years.  Bancroft  Library 

After  the  arrival  of  Europeans,  bringing  an  assortment  of 
"novelties"  of  all  kinds,  there  was  no  reason  why  the  Indians 
should  trouble  themselyes  further  to  obtain  domestic  copper  by 
the  toilsome  process  of  searching  and  digging  for  it,  because 
they  now  had  not  only  a  ready  and  sufficient  supply  of  that  metal 
for  ornamental  purposes,  but  were  introduced  to  many  other 
things  of  superior  attractiveness,  especially  iron,  in  the  form  of 
knives,  hatchets,  etc,,  which  at  once  superseded  copper  for  prac 
tical  use.  "The  Chippewa  chief,  Kontika,  asserted  in  1824  that 
but  seven  generations  of  men  had  passed  since  the  French 
brought  them  brass  kettles ;  at  which  time  their  people  at  once 
laid  aside  their  own  manufactures  and  adopted  those  of  the 
French."  *  The  testimony  of  the  earliest  voyagers  to  the  pos 
session  of  copper  ornaments  by  the  natives  is  therefore  of  im 
portance,  because  there  was  very  soon  enough  of  the  imported 
article  in  the  country  to  make  a  show.  Incidentally,  also,  arch 
aeologists  have  to  keep  this  fact  of  foreign  importation  in  mind  in 
deciding  upon  the  origin  of  copper  articles  in  "finds."  Lake 
Superior  copper,  of  which  pre-Columbian  Indian  articles  were 
made,  occurs  in  the  native  state,  and  is  free  from  the  impurities 
which  are  found  in  copper  that  has  been  smelted,  so  that  chemi 
cal  analysis  could  often  decide  whether  a  given  specimen  was  of 

*Schoolcraft,  Vol.  IV,  p.  142. 


72  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN. 

native  origin  or  imported.  On  some  copper  articles  found  in  the 
north,  specks  of  silver  have  been  noticed.  This  is  as  sure  a 
token  of  Lake  Superior  copper  which  has  never  been  melted  as 
a  stamp  could  be. 

In  the  absence  of  evidence  that  the  Indians  of  the  United 
States  had  any  knowledge  of  smelting  it  must  be  inferred  that 
all  the  copper  they  possessed  was  found  in  the  metallic  or  native 
state.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  they  were  aware  of  the  ex 
istence  of  copper  ore  as  a  source  of  metal.  No  remains  of 
smelting  places,  or  slag,  or  other  indications  of  metallurgical 
operations  have  yet  been  found.  If  they  had  known  smelting 
they  could  have  had  an  ample  supply  of  the  metal,  because  ores 
of  copper  are  comparatively  abundant  in  the  United  States,  while 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  copper  was  a  rarity  with  them.  Native  cop 
per  occurs  in  small  quantities  in  many  places  in  the  United 
States,  but  there  is  no  evidence  at  present  that  the  northern  In 
dians  had  knowledge  of  any  but  two  localities  where  it  could  be 
obtained  in  any  quantity.  These  were  the  Coppermine  River  in 
the  British  possessions,  and  the  Lake  Superior  copper  district. 
The  latter  affords  the  most  remarkable  occurrence  of  native  cop 
per  in  the  world,  and  the  present  mines  on  Keweenaw  Penin 
sula — including  the  famous  Calumet  and  Hecla,  the  Tamarack, 
Quincy  and  others — are  of  world-wide  fame.  The  same  deposits 
were  worked  superficially  over  their  whole  extent  long  before 
the  advent  of  Europeans  to  these  shores. 

By  referring  to  the  map  of  Michigan  it  will  be  seen  that  Ke 
weenaw  Peninsula  is  a  prominent  geographical  feature  and 
extends  a  considerable  distance  into  Lake  Superior.  Its  north 
western  shore  and  the  continuation  thereof  through  Ontonagon 
County  is  practically  parallel  to  the  opposite  or  north  shore  of 
the  lake.  Through  the  middle  of  Keweenaw  Point  runs  a  belt 
of  elevated  land,  which  is  several  hundred  feet  above  the  lake 
in  some  places,  and  extends  from  the  extreme  point  through  the 
peninsula  and  Ontonagon  County  into  Wisconsin.  This  elevated 
belt,  which  is  known  as  the  "mineral  range,"  sometimes  rises  into 
bluffs,  which  are  abrupt  on  the  southeastern  or  shoreward  side, 
but  sloping  in  the  opposite  direction  or  toward  the  lake.  The 
dip  of  the  formation  (sandstone,  and[  sheets  of  igneous  rock  in 
cluding  conglomerates)  composing  this  range  is  in  a  general 
northwesterly  direction,  or  towards  the  lake  and  the  north  shore. 
On  Isle  Royale,  near  the  north  shore  of  the  lake,  the  same  for 
mation  occurs,  but  dipping  in  the  opposite  direction,  viz.,  to  the 
southeast  or  towards  Keweenaw.  "Trap"  rock  carrying  copper 
is  also  found  on  the  north  and  east  shores  of  the  lake  at  St.  Ignace 
and  Michipicoten  Island.  The  copper-bearing  series  of  the  "min 
eral  range"  consists  of  sheets  of  igneous  rocks — diabase,  diabase- 
amygdaloid  and  melaphyr — which  include  beds  of  conglomerate 
all  carrying  native  copper.  Both  of  these  classes  of  rocks  are 


PRE-COLUMBIAN  COPPER  MINING  IN  AMERICA.  73 

mined.  The  famous  Calumet  and  Hecla  mine  is  in  the  conglom 
erate,  as  is  also  the  Tamarack,  while  the  Quincy,  Atlantic,  and 
others  are  in  the  amygdaloid  rocks.  The  product  of  the  mines 
is  divided  by  the  miners  into  three  classes,  stamp  rock,  "barrel 
work"  and  mass  copper.  By  stamp  rock  is  meant  that  which  con 
tains  the  copper  in  fine  particles  and  is  sent  to  the  powerful  steam 
stamps  to  be  crushed,  in  order  to  separate  the  grains  of  copper 
by  washing  (jigging),  just  as  gold  bearing  quartz  is  stamped. 
''Barrel  work"  means  the  pieces  of  copper  which  are  large  enough 
to  be  detached  from  the  rock  without  stamping,  and  are  packed 
in  barrels  and  sent  directly  to  the  smelters.  They  vary  in  size 
from  pieces  about  as  large  as  the  hand  to  those  not  too  large  to 
be  conveniently  packed  in  barrels.  Pieces  too  large  for  this  con 
stitute  the  third  class,  "mass  copper,"  which  includes  the  huge 
pieces  of  many  tons  weight,  which  are  occasionally  met  with. 
All  this  copper  shows  as  such  in  the  rock,  and  the  ancient 
miners  had  only  to  follow  down  a  promising  outcrop  showing 
"barrel  work"  for  a  few  feet  and  hammer  away  the  rock  from  the 
copper  to  secure  the  latter.  When  they  came  upon  mass  copper 
they  were  compelled  to  abandon  it  after  hammering  off  project 
ing  pieces,  because  they  had  no  tools  for  cutting  it  up  and  re 
moving  it.  Several  instances  of  this  sort  have  been  found. 

The  ancient  "mines"  were  not  mines  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word,  because  they  were  not  underground  workings.  As  de 
scribed  by  Whittlesey,  who  examined  them  at  an  early  date,*  they 
were  shallow  pits  or  trenches,  and  sometimes  excavations  in  the 
faces  of  the  cliffs,  scattered  along  the  mineral  range  from  Onto- 
nagon  to  near  the  end  of  the  peninsula.  At  the  time  modern 
mining  began  they  had  become  mere  depressions  in  the  ground, 
owing  to  the  accumulations  of  earth,  leaves  and  decayed  vege 
table  matter,  within  them.  Forest  trees  were  growing  in  them 
and  upon  the  waste  thrown  out  of  them,  so  that  it  was  difficult 
to  distinguish  them  trom  natural  depressions  due  to  the  weather 
ing  of  the  rock  beneath  the  soil,  or,  in  some  cases,  from  the 
hollows  left  by  the  upturned  roots  of  fallen  trees.  After  their 
character  was  discovered,  however,  they  served  as  guides  to  the 
modern  miners,  who  often  sank  shafts  upon  the  copper-bearing 
rocks,  which  were  revealed  by  clearing  them  out.  No  mine  has 
been  opened  on  the  lake  that  was  not  thus  "prospected"  by  the 
old  miners.  Trenches  like  those  on  Keweenaw  Point  and  Onto- 
nagon,  but  if  anything  more  elaborate,  were  found  on  Isle  Royale 
and  Sir  William  Logan  mentioned  similar  workings  on  the  east 
shore  of  the  lake,  near  Maimanse.  All  of  these  workings  con 
tained  stone  hammers  or  mauls,  amounting  in  all  to  a  countless 
number.  A  few  wooden  shovels,  strongly  resembling  canoe 
paddles,  were  found  in  some  of  the  diggings,  together  with  the 

*Smithsonian  Contributions,  XIII,  1862. 


74  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN. 

remains  of  wooden  bowls  for  baling,  birch-bark  baskets  and  some 
spear  or  lance  heads  and  other  articles  of  copper.  In  Ontonagon 
County  the  old  workings  were  for  the  most  part  shallow  depres 
sions  only  a  few  feet  deep.  Some  of  them  in  the  bluff  which 
showed  outcroppings  of  copper  rock  were  hardly  large  enough 
to  shelter  a  bear,  while  others  were  larger.  In  Houghton  Coun 
ty  (/'.  e.,  on  the  Keweenaw  promontory)  on  the  Quincy  location, 
there  were  broad  and  deep  pits  in  the  gravel,  probably  dug  for 
the  float  copper,  lumps  of  which  are  still  met  with  in  the  neigh 
borhood.  At  the  Central  mine,  further  out  on  the  point,  there 
was  a  pit  filled  in  with  rubbish,  which  was  at  first  supposed  to 
be  natural.  It  was  five  feet  deep  and  thirty  long.  On  examina 
tion,  "a  flat  piece  of  copper,  five  to  nine  inches  thick  and  nine 
feet  long,  was  found,  which  formed  part  of  a  piece  still  in  the 
vein.  Broken  stone  mauls  were  all  about  it,  showing  that  the 
miners  could  do  nothing  with  it.  Its  upper  edge  had  been  beaten 
by  the  stone  mauls  so  severely  that  a  lip  or  projecting  rim  had 
been  formed,  which  was  bent  downwards."  Other  localities 
toward  the  end  of  the  peninsula  and  at  the  Copper  Falls  location 
are  described  by  Mr.  Whittlesey,  and  as  late  as  1890  depressions 
in  the  ground  of  small  dimensions  were  pointed  out  to  the 
writer  at  the  latter  place  as  the  work  of  the  old  miners.  Modern 
miners  would  regard  the  whole  system  as  nothing  more  than 
prospecting  work  and  not  mining  proper,  as  there  were  no  shafts 
or  tunnels  or  underground  workings  of  any  kind.  As  Mr. 
Whittlesey  expressed  it,  "the  old  miners  performed  the  part  of 
surface  explorers." 

I  am  fortunate  in  being  able  to  add  to  the  foregoing  the  testi 
mony  of  an  eye-witness  of  some  other  discoveries  in  this  district, 
viz.,  that  of  Mr.  J.  H.  Forster,  a  well-known  mining  engineer 
who  lived  in  the  district  many  years.  He  was  at  one  time  super 
intendent  of  one  of  the  mines,  and  was  engaged  on  the  Portage 
lake  ship  canal  as  state  engineer  when  the  canal  was  opened, 
when  he  discovered  some  copper  articles  in  an  ancient  grave  at 
that  point.  He  writes  in  regard  to  the  discovery  of  old  opera 
tions:  "The  largest  mass  of  float  copper  found  in  modern  times 
.  .  .  weighed  eighteen  tons  and  contained  very  little  rocky 
matter.  When  found  in  the  woods  it  was  covered  with  moss  and 
resembled  a  flat  trap  boulder.  It  had  been  manipulated  by  the 
'ancient  miner'  and  much  charcoal  was  found  around  it.  Its  top 
and  sides  were  pounded  smooth  and  marks  of  stone  hammers 
were  apparent.  All  projections — every  bit  of  copper  that  could 
be  detached — had  been  carried  away.  .  .  .  Subsequent  explora 
tions  disclosed  the  epidote  lode  whence  the  mass  came — torn 
from  its  matrix  doubtless  by  the  ice.  The  mass  had  been  trans 
ported  only  about  fifty  feet  and  dropped  on  a  ridge.  When  the 
lode  was  stripped  of  the  drift  the  jagged  edges  of  a  mass  in 
place  were  exposed.  It  was  of  the  same  length,  thickness  and 


FEE-COLUMBIAN  COPPER  MINING  IN  AMERICA.  75 

structure  of  the  "float."  It  was  observed  at  the  time  that  if  the 
'float'  could  be  set  up  on  edge  on  the  piece  in  place  it  would  fit 
in  exactly."  Mr.  Forster  was  present  when  the  famous  Calumet 
conglomerate  lode  was  opened.  At  that  point  a  small  mound 
was  found  in  the  woods,  while  explorations  were  in  progress, 
upon  which  large  maple  and  birch  trees  were  growing.  Roots 
of  trees  still  more  ancient  were  found  in  the  drift.  After  strip 
ping  off  the  timber,"  a  pit  was  sunk  which  reached  the  solid  con 
glomerate  at  the  depth  of  fifteen  feet.  "But  it  was  a  hard  rock 
filled  with  stamp  copper  only  and  could  not  be  mined  by  the 
ancient  miners."  Numerous  stone  hammers  and  birch-bark 
baskets  were  found  in  the  workings.  Mr.  Forster  thinks  the  dirt 
was  carried  out  of  the  pit  in  these  baskets.  On  the  north  side 
of  Portage  lake,  on  the  extension  of  the  Isle  Royale  lode  (oppo 
site  Houghton),  the  drift  being  shallow,  "long  trenches  were  dug 
on  the  back  of  the  lode  three  feet  wide  and  deep.  There  was 
much  small  mass  or  nugget  copper  (barrel  work)  released  by 
the  disintegration  of  the  soft  epidote  vein  stone."  This  was 
thrown  out,  while  the  earth  was  thrown  behind  the  miner  as  he 
advanced,  and  the  work  resembled  that  of  an  expert  "navvy."  A 
remarkably  deep  trench  was  discovered  at  the  South  Pewabie 
(now  Atlantic)  mine,  several  miles  west  of  the  last  locality,  which 
extended  two  or  three  feet  into  the  solid  rock.  At  the  bottom 
"was  a  well-defined  transverse  fissure  vein  of  quartz,  about  two 
feet  wide,  containing  here  and  there  chunks  of  solid  copper.  By 
the  several  pits  sunk  on  the  course  of  the  vein,  proof  was  had 
that  it  had  been  worked  superficially  several  hundred  feet  in 
length.  I  walked  through  it  a  long  distance.  The  surface  of 
the  formation  was  shattered  and  decomposed,  hence  the  old 
miners  could  come  at  the  quartz  handily.  They  did  not  carry 
the  rock  out  to  the  surface  to  dump  it,  but  piled  it  up  neatly  on 
each  side  of  the  drift.  At  one  point  I  found  a  handsome  speci 
men  of  quartz  and  copper  laid  up  carefully  in  a  niche.  It  weighed 
several  pounds.  .  .  .  As  in  other  cases,  we  had  proof  that  the 
ancient  miner  did  not  sink  any  shafts  and  do  real  mining.  He 
was  only  a  surface  gleaner."  Of  the  ancient  workings  on  Isle 
Royale,  on  the  north  shore  of  the  lake,  which  were  very  exten 
sive  and  have  been  described  as  extending  twenty  feet  and  more 
in  the  solid  rock,  Mr.  Forster  says :  "As  I  understand  it,  these 
extensive  works  were  upon  a.  high  outcrop,  promising  natural 
drainage.  And  I  should  infer  from  what  1  heard  from  Mr.  A.  C. 
Davis,  the  agent,  and  others  who  opened  the  Minong  mine*  that 
the  ancient  workings  were  among  disturbed  shattered  rocks, 
among  which  were  found  much  mass  copper  and  barrel  work. 
The  ancients  were  after  these  pieces  of  copper.  Mr.  Davis  found 
many  considerable  masses,  handled  and  beaten  by  the  ancient 
men,  which  were  too  large  for  them  to  carry  away."f 

*On  Isle  Royale.       fFrom  a  letter  to  the  writer. 


76  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN. 

At  the  Minnesota  mine,  in  Ontonagon  County,  was  found  a  large 
piece  of  mass  copper  which  had  been  raised  some  distance  in  the 
excavation  and  abandoned  by  the  old  workers.  As  this  was  the 
first  large  mass  discovered  and  gave  rise  to  considerable  specula 
tion,  it  deserves  special  mention.  The  account  is  taken  from 
Forster  and  Whitney's  report  on  the  Geology  of  the  Lake  Superior 
Copper  Region,  and  is  as  follows:  In  the  winter  of  1847-8,  Mr. 
Knapp,  the  agent  of  the  Minnesota,  found  an  artificial  cavern  on 
the  mine  location  containing  stone  hammers,  and  at  the  bottom 
was  a  vein  with  jagged  projections  of  copper.  After  the  snow 
had  left  in  the  spring  he  found  other  excavations,  and  particularly 
one  twenty-six  feet  deep,  filled  with  clay  and  a  matted  mass  of 
mouldering  vegetable  matter.  On  digging  eighteen  feet  he  came 
to  a  mass  of  native  copper  ten  feet  long,  three  feet  wide  and 
nearly  two  feet  thick,  weighing  over  six  tons.  "On  digging 
around  it  the  mass  was  found  to  rest  on  billets  of  oak  supported 
by  sleepers  of  the  same  material.  This  wood,  by  its  long  expos 
ure  to  dampness,  is  dark  colored  and  has  lost  all  of  its  consistency. 
A  knife  blade  may  be  thrust  into  it  as  easily  as  into  a  peat  bog. 
The  earth  was  so  packed  around  the  copper  as  to  give  it  a  firm 
support.  The  ancient  miners  had  evidently  raised  it  about  five 
feet  and  then  abandoned  the  work  as  too  laborious.  They  had 
taken  off  every  projecting  point  which  was  accessible,  so  that  the 
exposed  surface  was  smooth.  Below  this  the  vein  was  subse 
quently  found  filled  with  a  sheet  of  copper  five  feet  thick  and  of 
an  undetermined  extent  vertically  and  longitudinally.  .  .  The 
vein  was  wrought  in  the  form  of  an  open  trench  and  where  the 
copper  was  most  abundant  there  the  excavations  extended  deep 
est.  The  trench  is  generally  filled  to  within  afoot  of  the  surface 
with  the  wash  from  the  surrounding  surface,  intermingled  with 
leaves  nearly  decayed."  Whittlesey  says  of  this  mass:  "Its 
upper  surface  and  edges  were  beaten  and  pounded  smooth,  all 
the  irregularities  taken  off,  and  around  the  outside  a  rim  or  lip 
was  formed,  bending  downwards.  .  .  Such  copper  as  could  be 
separated  by  their  tools  was  thus  broken  off,  the  beaten  surface 
was  smooth  and  polished. 

On  the  ed^e  of  the  excavation  in  which  the  mass  was  found 
there  stood  an  ancient  hemlock,  the  roots  of  which  extended 
across  the  ditch.  I  counted  the  rings  of  annual  growth  on  its 
stump  and  found  them  to  be  two  hundred  and  ninety."  Mr. 
Knapp  felled  another  tree,  growing  in  a  similar  position,  which 
had  three  hundred  and  ninety-five  rings  "The  fallen  and  decayed 
trunks  of  trees  of  a  previous  generation  were  seen  lying  across 
the  pits."  A  shaft  was  subsequently  sunk  on  the  lode  revealed 
by  this  trench,  which  was  in  rich  ground,  to  a  great  depth.  The 
abandonment  of  this  mass  of  copper  formerly  gave  rise  to  con 
jectures.  It  was  supposed  that  the  ancient  miners  were  inter 
rupted  in  their  work  "by  some  terrible  pestilence  .  .  .  or  by 


PRE-COLUMBIAN  COPPER  MINING  IN  AMERICA.  77 

the  breaking  out  of  war;  or,  as  seems  not  less  probable,  by  the 
invasion  of  the  mineral  region  by  a  barbarian  race,  ignorant  of 
all  the  arts  of  the  ancient  Mound-builders  of  the  Mississippi  and 
cf  Lake  Superior."*  But  from  a  consideration  of  the  evidence 
of  the  character  and  scope  of  the  old  workings  which  we  now 
possess,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  go  so  far  for 
an  explanation.  As  was  clearly  the  case  at  the  Central  and 
Mesnard  mines,  and  on  Isle  Royale,  the  mass  at  the  Minnesota 
was  abandoned  by  the  old  miners  because  they  found  it  impossi 
ble  to  get  any  more  pieces  from  it.  They  had  no  tools  which 
could  cut  it,  and  even  at  the  present  time  mass  copper  is  the  least 
desirable  form  in  which  the  metal  presents  itself  in  the  mines,  on 
account  of  the  labor  and  expense  of  cutting  it  up,  although  there 
are  steel  tools  especially  invented  for  the  purpose  The  practice 
of  hammering  off  pieces  from  mass  copper  is  mentioned  by 
visitors  to  the  lake  from  the  French  missionaries  down  to  School- 
craft.  There  was  a  large  mass  on  the  Ontonagon,  which  has 
been  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution  for  many  years,  which  was 
considerably  reduced  in  size  in  this  way  in  the  course  of  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  casual  visits, 

A  great  antiquity  has  been  assigned  to  these  workings  by 
some  writers,  and  it  used  to  be  supposed  that  a  busy  industry 
was  suddenly  interrupted  in  them  at  some  time  over  five  hundred 
years  ago.  The  tree  with  three  hundred  and  ninety-five  rings 
of  growth  has  been  used  to  support  an  argument  that  the  work 
ings  must  have  been  abandoned  at  least  as  long  ago  as  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  or,  to  be  exact,  reckoning  from  1847, 
before  the  year  1452.  This  would  be  at  least  forty  years  before 
the  voyage  of  Columbus  and  eighty-four  years  before  Cartier 
visited  Montreal.  Although  it  may  be  true  that  work  ceased  at 
the  particular  trench  where  that  tree  was  felled  at  the  date  indi 
cated,  it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  all  the  workings  were 
abandoned  at  the  same  time.  Indeed,  the  tree  which  grew  on 
the  dump  of  the  pit  where  the  Minnesota  mass  was  found  did 
not  begin  its  growth  until  over  a  hundred  years  later,  or  after 
the  French  had  been  up  the  St.  Lawrence  and  there  had  been 
considerable  traffic  with  Europeans  on  the  sea  coast.  How  long 
a  parte  ante  the  whole  system  had  been  worked  can  only  be  a 
matter  of  conjecture.  When  one  reflects  that  many  hundreds 
of  men  were  busily  engaged  for  several  consecutive  seasons,  with 
all  the  feverish  energy  born  of  the  modern  thirst  for  gold,  in  the 
diggings  of  any  one  of  the  placer  camps  which  are  now  seen 
abandoned  in  Idaho,  Oregon  and  California,  it  will  be  apparent 
that  the  old  miners  on  Lake  Superior  must  have  taken  a  long 
time  for  their  leisurely  work.  Their  tools  were  primitive,  their 
work  was  desultory,  and  they  knew  nothing  about  the  desire  of 

*Wilson.    Prehistoric  Man,  Vol.  I,  p.  278. 


78  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN. 

wealth.  Primitive  peoples  do  not  prosecute  any  industry  per 
sistently  and  assiduously  like  civilized  men.  Where  there  are  no 
wages,  no  expenditures,  no  companies  and  employes,  no  stocks 
or  fluctuations  of  the  market,  nothing  even  which  can  be  called 
a  demand,  there  is  no  need  of  pushing  a  laborious  work.  It  was 
also,  probably,  only  in  the  summer,  and  it  may  have  been  only 
at  considerable  intervals,  that  Keweenaw,  Ontonagon  and  Isle 
Royale  were  visited  for  copper.  It  must  also  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  ancient  miners  only  carried  away  "barrel  work."  They 
were  forced  to  abandon  mass  copper.  Barrel  work  from  the 
excavations  and  float  copper  from  the  neighboring  and  remote 
dritt  would  furnish  the  material  necessary  for  all  the  tools,  weapons 
and  ornaments  that  have  been  found,  and  although  the  quantity 
of  copper  from  these  sources  was  small  when  reckoned  in  tons, 
yet  the  desultory  and  selective  kind  of  mining  which  produced 
it,  especially  if  carried  on  by  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
persons  over  such  an  extensive  territory  as  the  mineral  range  of 
Keweenaw,  would  naturally  require  an  indefinite  length  of  time. 


